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Manufacturer spills beans on Google Nexus 7 sales

We loved the tablet, and it's a success, but not the runaway hit Google hopes.

Google has remained suspiciously quiet on the matter of sales numbers for its Nexus 7 tablet, especially given the positive critical reaction. Asustek has finally broken the silence on the subject to the Wall Street Journal: sales have been tracking up since launch and are now approaching a million units per month.

Asustek CFO David Chang told the WSJ that the company was selling—not just shipping—500,000 units a month initially, when the Nexus 7 launched in July. Figures bumped up to 600,000-700,000 in the following months, and in "this latest month," Google and Asus have sold close to one million units, said Chang.

Perhaps the next most successful brand is the Galaxy Tab from Samsung, which has a murky sales history. Samsung has claimed millions of sales per quarter in the past, but some court documents revealed during the Apple-Samsung trial showed the figures to be much lower. Meanwhile, Apple's iPad continues to find buyers, to the tune of 14 million in the third quarter of 2012 alone.

We'd attribute much of the original Kindle Fire's success to its appeal as a gift to new tablet adopters, and at the same $199 price point, the Nexus 7 may clean up in this niche as fall turns to winter and Asus bumps the storage tiers to 16 and 32 GB. But it will face competition, not only from the new Kindle Fires HD, but also the iPad mini.

Promoted Comments

You have to remember the Nexus 7 is not in every market, and is not really advertised (only recently have I even seen an ad for it). To be selling a million a month now is really good IMO.

1034 posts | registered Nov 28, 2009

Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston

So despite launching in 12 markets with a massive geek hype machine, the Nexus 7 can't match the numbers the original Fire did in only one market. Pretty sad. I'm not suprised though, on the latest earnings call Amazon spent their time comparing the FireHD to the iPad Mini, no mention of the Nexus, which makes it pretty clear who they see as the real competition.

You have to remember the Nexus 7 is not in every market, and is not really advertised (only recently have I even seen an ad for it). To be selling a million a month now is really good IMO.

Yes, its biggest current problem is obscurity.

Apple is a well known brand, and the press and zealot community do advertising for them in addition to the massive advertising campaign Apple already runs.

It's good to know that sales are tracking up, though, shows that the item is gaining momentum as awareness of it gradually increases. It's currently far and away the best value on the market from a price/hardware performance perspective.

Rumours of the iPad mini started surfacing right around the Nexus 7 launch (strangely enough ...). I have to wonder how many potential purchasers decided to wait until they saw what Apple was offering, and how many of those will jump on the Nexus 7 now rather than spend 60% more.

I went out to price the Nexus 7 recently (I'm in Hong Kong), and they are priced around the USD 299 mark here for the 16GB version. Most were HKD 2398, one place was selling for HKD 2220, so the range is USD 285 to USD 306.

Is the USD 199 a US only price? Is it being sold at a profit in some places, but at cost in the US?

I can say I've been very happy with my Nexus 7, and there's a good chance I may pick up the new version with 3g when it comes out. Perhaps I'll give my current one to my daughter. She's been using the Transformer Prime, but it's a bit cumbersome for a 7-year old to play on.

It's funny though, the idea of a product selling a million pieces a month and not being considered a hit doesn't seem right. Is it matching ipad sales? No, but is it really necessary for every product to completely dominate? That seems unrealistic to me.

I went out to price the Nexus 7 recently (I'm in Hong Kong), and they are priced around the USD 299 mark here for the 16GB version. Most were HKD 2398, one place was selling for HKD 2220, so the range is USD 285 to USD 306.

Is the USD 199 a US only price? Is it being sold at a profit in some places, but at cost in the US?

That's interesting. Considering the item is probably manufactured in China I can't imagine there are import tariffs explaining that price. However, until recently the 16GB version was $249 direct from Google, so it's not as far out of line if they haven't adjusted the price internationally yet.

Have you checked to see if you can buy it directly from the google play store?

I've been wanting one for a while now, but It's not available here on my country. The iPad has been available for years one almost every market now, there's no point comparing numbers. I'm pretty sure that as it starts to enter new markets, we'll see more sales.

I have seen a couple ads for the Nexus, but not nearly enough for it to really be a hit, even according to Google/Asus expectations. They need to pour on the money and advertise the hell out of this tablet, especially when the 32GB with 3G comes out.

And they need to get on the information bandwagon, how will the 3G work with the tablet? Is it a separate service/contract thing? COME ON, GOOGLE/ASUS!!!!

Seriously, the only thing stopping me from considering the Kindle Fire is the Nexus line of tablets, because of the Nexus moniker and associated benefits.

That's interesting. Considering the item is probably manufactured in China I can't imagine there are import tariffs explaining that price. However, until recently the 16GB version was $249 direct from Google, so it's not as far out of line if they haven't adjusted the price internationally yet.

Have you checked to see if you can buy it directly from the google play store?

Only content (apps, etc) is available from the play store here. No hardware that I can see.

Edit: I should add that I see a lot of small tablets - probably Samsung Galaxies up to 7.7" - in use on the MTR (subway), so there's a fair bit of demand for tablets in this range here. I see them on sale in ordinary retailers (think BestBuy or Dixon's or Harvey Norman), rather than geeky places.

but some court documents revealed during the Apple-Samsung trial revealed the figures to be much lower. .

Sad to see you repeat this nonsense. Court documents were US only, and for old models only. If anything, they seem in line with Samsung's few official statements (Extrapolating Samsung's US smartphone market share vs the rest of the world into the tablet market).

On topic, great to see the Nexus 7 selling this well with so little marketing and limited availability.

I want to point out that the Nexus 7 is well-known for geeks, I.T. folks that keep up on the news, etc. But the general public? They know about the new Kindle Fire, the iPad, and maybe the Nook, and a few others.

My wife wants a Nexus 7 for some reason (she wants something that fits in her purse / more portable than her Transformer Prime which rarely leaves its keyboard dock).

She hasn't been able to see one in a store - not on the shelf at Best Buy, Staples, etc. I honestly don't know of a B&M that you can see one...? I'm sure there is one...just saying...Google might be pushing it, but it's not being pushed in physical stores were people can see it and play with it, and the advertising for it seems to be minimal.

That's interesting. Considering the item is probably manufactured in China I can't imagine there are import tariffs explaining that price. However, until recently the 16GB version was $249 direct from Google, so it's not as far out of line if they haven't adjusted the price internationally yet.

Have you checked to see if you can buy it directly from the google play store?

Only content (apps, etc) is available from the play store here. No hardware that I can see.

Obviously Amazon isn't pushing the Nexus 7 but the fact that Best Buy appears to not even sell it is completely bizarre. Why on earth would they not sell the only good Android tablet (while still keeping a backstock of a bunch of crap?). Best Buy is matching prices to Amazon for the holiday season.. but no Nexus 7? Insane. What a great way to get people in their brick and mortars... I don't get it.

I think the most important thing Google has done here is change the game on pricing. Instead of charging $500, $600, or even $700, like some manufacturers are charging for off-contract devices, they're putting a solid device out there for $300. I've seen new, on-contract phones sold for that kind of money.

I have talked to several people about the Nexus 7 just over the last few days, and they all were surprised when I explained that I only paid $250 for my tablet, and they were even more surprised to hear that when it re-launches next month, it will only be $300 with 3G connectivity.

I have noticed that carriers are now selling tablets in the $300-400 range with no contract... why are phones still $600-700?

I think the Nexus series has the power to truly be a game-changer. I hope it continues to be a success, and I hope this changes they way mobile devices are marketed here.

She hasn't been able to see one in a store - not on the shelf at Best Buy, Staples, etc. I honestly don't know of a B&M that you can see one...? I'm sure there is one...just saying...Google might be pushing it, but it's not being pushed in physical stores were people can see it and play with it, and the advertising for it seems to be minimal.

I have only seen it at Gamestop.

I think it's not at most retail stores because there's no real margin in that $200 price. Retail stores won't sell something if they can't profit on the sale. If Google wanted to sell it retail, they'd have to bump the price up to more like $300, and I think at least part of the point with the new Nexus line is to help bring down the price of mobile devices.

She hasn't been able to see one in a store - not on the shelf at Best Buy, Staples, etc. I honestly don't know of a B&M that you can see one...?

That's odd cause I've seen them on display at our local Staples and Office Depot. They don't demo very well though. There's really nothing on them, they just hook up to a local wireless so you can check out the web browser. They need to preload the demo units with some choice applications just to show it off some.

You have to remember the Nexus 7 is not in every market, and is not really advertised (only recently have I even seen an ad for it). To be selling a million a month now is really good IMO.

I found out about it through sites like Ars and Engadget, I think it also helped when GameStop was offering the 16 GB version pre-order with the $25 Google Play Store credit AND Transformers: Dark of the Moon pre-loaded on it, which ended up being the deciding factor for me. Having the difference in pricing between the 8 GB and 16 GB in value added on to a device from launch is always a nice way to spur sales, IMHO.

You have to remember the Nexus 7 is not in every market, and is not really advertised (only recently have I even seen an ad for it). To be selling a million a month now is really good IMO.

This is true, I've been looking at getting a 7 inch tablet and wasn't even aware this had been released, let alone in the UK. Only found out today when we got one in for testing at my office, and now considering adding to those sale numbers

Hinton wrote:

And anyway, why should it be Nexus 7 vs. iPad. Shouldn't it be Android tablets vs. iPad, if the goal is for Android tablets to outsell iOS tablets? Nexus 7 isn't alone in the Android market you know.

Even if you were to compare it to iPad, shouldn't it be iPad Mini rather than the full sized one?

Yet another ZDnet that ignores the new tablets that are due out tomorrow from Barnes & Noble. Frankly, the Barnes & Noble offerings look better to me than the Kindle Fires. (Though I admit application selection from the B&N devices leave a lot to be desired.)

I went out to price the Nexus 7 recently (I'm in Hong Kong), and they are priced around the USD 299 mark here for the 16GB version. Most were HKD 2398, one place was selling for HKD 2220, so the range is USD 285 to USD 306.

Is the USD 199 a US only price? Is it being sold at a profit in some places, but at cost in the US?

When you convert USD to GBP and add local taxes (VAT), the UK prices are:

I think it really is a matter of Google actually spending money to start advertising their devices... while I'm sure that most people on this site stay somewhat acquainted with the latest and greatest google gadgetry, I certainly know that my tech-illiterate aunt would have never known about the Nexus 7 had I not told her about it and urged her to get one. Google *needs* to start pumping its brands in the public eye. People know about Google for search. They know much less about the Nexus brand. Simply putting a handful of videos up on YouTube != advertising.

She hasn't been able to see one in a store - not on the shelf at Best Buy, Staples, etc. I honestly don't know of a B&M that you can see one...?

That's odd cause I've seen them on display at our local Staples and Office Depot. They don't demo very well though. There's really nothing on them, they just hook up to a local wireless so you can check out the web browser. They need to preload the demo units with some choice applications just to show it off some.

Whenever I come across one and have a few minutes I set them up properly to show off the benefits of widgets (which is magnified on tablets) and add some name brand apps (or delete the wall of repeat apps some people put on there).. hope to show people why they should consider Android (for selfish reasons, I want developers to put in the extra effort on their Android apps, which I think increased market share would help)

Glad they're growing in numbers moved.. will defenitely be picking up at least one of the Nexus tablets this christmas..

You have to remember the Nexus 7 is not in every market, and is not really advertised (only recently have I even seen an ad for it). To be selling a million a month now is really good IMO.

Very true. I was in the UK when it came out so I was able to pick one up. Otherwise I would have had to wait till a couple of weeks ago, it started being sold in the Czech Republic at the beginning of October.

I'd also be surprised if many others here even know about it. I haven't seen a single advert for it, and nor do I expect to. I would say moving over a million a month is pretty good considering the limited market.

I'm getting tired of hearing about all these Google devices they do not want to sell me.

Webshops that serve one EU country but will not ship to another belong in the dark, evil days of the 20th century. Google should be better than that. I don't even need or expect service in my native language. Either their existing UK webshop or their existing German webshop would do just fine. All they need to add is a shipping option to another EU country, and to remove the IP block preventing me from even browsing (which is a WTF in itself).

You have to remember the Nexus 7 is not in every market, and is not really advertised (only recently have I even seen an ad for it). To be selling a million a month now is really good IMO.

Very true. I was in the UK when it came out so I was able to pick one up. Otherwise I would have had to wait till a couple of weeks ago, it started being sold in the Czech Republic at the beginning of October.

I'd also be surprised if many others here even know about it. I haven't seen a single advert for it, and nor do I expect to. I would say moving over a million a month is pretty good considering the limited market.

I don't know about availability in my area, but I will say that I cannot recall a single ad for this device. Not a billboard, radio spot, or TV commercial. Not even banner ads.

Also, it's an interesting world we live in, where a million units in sales can be described as "disappointing." Not saying I disagree, but it's pretty amazing when you consider what that million unit mark means to ~95%* of all businesses.

*No, this is not one of those 73% of made up statistics - why do you ask?

Obviously Amazon isn't pushing the Nexus 7 but the fact that Best Buy appears to not even sell it is completely bizarre. Why on earth would they not sell the only good Android tablet (while still keeping a backstock of a bunch of crap?). Best Buy is matching prices to Amazon for the holiday season.. but no Nexus 7? Insane. What a great way to get people in their brick and mortars... I don't get it.

That's odd, because in Canada, both Best Buy and Futureshop (which Best Buy owns) are stocking them (I bought mine at Futureshop).

Although it's about 10-20$ more for the units in Canada (even though our currency is currently worth more than the US Dollar...).

Rumours of the iPad mini started surfacing right around the Nexus 7 launch (strangely enough ...). I have to wonder how many potential purchasers decided to wait until they saw what Apple was offering, and how many of those will jump on the Nexus 7 now rather than spend 60% more.

I was holding out till I saw the Mini reviews

my guess would be there will be a lot of folks who go cheaper with the Nexus. However most will "want" the iPad instead. So it's a situation where Apple still kinda wins.